Living power is hateful for the rabble, They only know how to love the dead.
We are crazy when the splash of the people
Or an ardent cry trouble our heart!
God sent our gladness to the earth, The people howled, dying in torment;
I opened the granaries for them, I am gold
I scattered them, I found work for them -
They cursed me, raging!
Firefire destroyed their houses, I built new homes for them.
They reproached me with the fire!
Here is the judgment of the rabble: look for her love.
"Boris Godunov" A. Pushkin
Great rulers. We continue our series of articles on great rulers. And today we will talk about the great Greeks. Great in their deeds, but in the opinion of the people they did not become such.
One of them was the Athenian Themistocles - a man who did a lot for Athens and, in fact, saved all of Greece from enslavement by the Persians. Like no other, he deserves the greatest admiration. But … the latter he received only from descendants. His contemporaries had a completely different opinion of him.
Talented by nature
Generously endowed with natural talents and distinguished by a rare sharpness of mind, Themistocles became famous as the greatest master of making decisions in the most unforeseen circumstances and, in addition, had an exceptional ability to foresee events, and even a very distant future.
He also had one more quality that was very useful for a politician: he always had the right words and phrases to explain his actions to other people. His arguments were logical and reached the most mediocre mind. And if they did not reach someone, or by itself he aroused hostility, then those were always in the minority. Therefore, their opinion did not influence his decision-making.
Thucydides wrote about him that on the basis of insignificant signs related to this or that event, “Themistocles received his sight, whether they portend anything good or bad. In short, he was a man to whom his genius and quickness of thought immediately suggested the best course of action."
(History. I. 138. 3. Thucydides)
Now let's remember in what historical time Themistocles lived.
It was then that tyrants were expelled from Athens, and the city's power immediately began to grow.
Herodotus wrote:
“Having freed themselves from tyranny, they have undoubtedly taken the leading position. Therefore, under the yoke of the tyrants, the Athenians did not want to fight like slaves working for their master; now, after his release, everyone began to strive for their own well-being."
What does it take to please the Athenians?
Themistocles was illegitimate, but it was at that time that his condition ceased to be significant.
Now, in order to excel in Athens, it was necessary to be able to convince the people - demos, and for this to speak fearlessly and skillfully at the national assembly of Athenian citizens and constantly be in sight. And he also gained popularity, first of all, among the rabble thanks to his good memory: he called every citizen by name, well, fools, who are always in the majority in any society, that was quite enough.
It should be noted here that the inhabitants of Athens were somewhat reminiscent of modern Russians. Most citizens necessarily had their own "dacha" outside the city and a house in Athens itself. Sometimes the land plots were very large. Sometimes they are small, but the Athenians, thanks to this, never lost touch with the land. And they all jointly owned the silver mines in Lavrion. The state owned them, just as our state owns oil and gas from our common bowels. But only in Athens, after the fall of the tyrants, this state property was considered the property of all its citizens. And if after covering all state expenses some amount remained, then all this money was divided among all Athenian citizens.
We would be like that, right? It would be great, wouldn't it?
In any case, for many of the poor Athenians, this was quite a decent income.
Only a real politician says one thing and thinks another
But Themistocles ventured to encroach on this money and send all the surplus finances to the construction of ships. It is clear that people perceived such a radical proposal rather ambiguously. Themistocles himself prepared these ships for the war with the Persians. Those had just been defeated at Marathon. The Athenians believed that they "would no longer poke their heads," but Themistocles thought differently and decided to convince his fellow citizens that new ships and a powerful fleet were necessary for the war with the island of Aegina, which had been at enmity with Athens for many years before. And he convinced him, although he himself thought quite differently.
As a result, it turned out that the "lower classes" benefited from his proposal: the construction of 200 ships caused an increase in daily wages, which the aristocrats did not like very much. Although not only for them, after all, the cost of living in the city has also increased along with the increased wages.
Immediately, the Persians began to invade Greece, broke through the Thermopylae pass, and their fleet began to threaten Athens. And it so happened that from the temple of Athena, the sacred snake that lived there disappeared and was kept as a shrine, decorated with jewels of the aegis of the goddess Athena Pallas. Panic reigned in the city, and then there were such horrific events.
And it was Themistocles who explained the disappearance of the snake by the fact that the goddess … left the city and thus showed the Athenians the way to the sea. And in order to find the jewel, Themistocles ordered to search the luggage of all citizens leaving the city and to confiscate an excessive amount of money from them. Like, "if you want to leave the city, pay, do not be greedy!" With this money, they paid the salaries of the crews of the ships and by this … increased their interest in fighting for their hometown. Patriotism, of course, is a good thing, but it was still better to support it with money.
By the way, the historian Plutarch describes in great detail how the Greeks hesitated a few days before the famous Battle of Salamis. The united fleet was commanded by the Spartan Eurybiades, who believed that since Athens had already fallen, then it was necessary to sail to the Isthmus of Corinth, where the ground army of the Spartans was stationed.
For some reason, only Themistocles realized that in a narrow strait, the numerical superiority of the Persian fleet would not matter.
History has preserved the conversation between Eurybiades and Themistocles.
Hit, but listen
Euribiades, unhappy that Themistocles began to speak first, said:
"Themistocles, in the competition they beat the one who runs ahead of time."
He answered him:
"Yes, but the one who is left behind is not awarded a wreath."
Euribias raised his stick to strike Themistocles, but he said very calmly:
"Hit, but listen."
Then someone, who decided to clearly show off his mind, said that a person who no longer has a city of his own should not be persuaded to fight for him those who have one. In response, Themistocles exclaimed:
“Scoundrel! Yes, we left houses and walls, not wanting to be slaves because of soulless things, and we have a city, more than all the cities in Hellas - two hundred triremes, which now stand here to help you if you want to seek your salvation; and if you leave for the second time and betray us, then immediately some of the Hellenes will find out that the Athenians acquired both a free city and the land no worse than the one they lost."
The threat was very significant, because at that time no one had a fleet equal to the Athenian one in Greece.
But then the Persian fleet finally approached Faler's harbor, and a huge Persian army came ashore, the Greeks could not stand their nerves, and they decided to flee.
Themistocles, realizing that the Greeks would lose the opportunity to defeat the Persians in unfamiliar and narrow straits, decided to go for a trick unprecedented in world history. Sikinn, a Persian by nationality and his trusted slave, he sent to Xerxes with the following message:
"The Athenian commander Themistocles goes over to the side of the king, and the first informs him that the Greeks want to flee, and advises not to let them escape, but to attack them while they are in alarm about the absence of a ground army, and to destroy their naval forces." …
Xerxes immediately ordered a council of war to be convened, at which most of his military leaders advised that the Greeks should fight in the narrow straits near Salamis. Only the queen of Helicarnassus Artemisia, an ally of Xerxes, declared that the Greek fleet would not be able to resist for long and that the Greeks were about to scatter to their cities. But … Xerxes did not obey the Greek woman and decided to give the Greeks a battle in the Strait of Salamis. And the Greeks, when they realized that they were surrounded, with the courage of despair began to prepare for battle.
Victory won by many tricks
It is known that they won in the battle of Salamis.
However, Themistocles and then went to the trick: he sent a scout to the king, who informed him that the Greeks now decided to sail north, destroy the bridges across the Hessepont and lock him up in Europe. Xerxes was frightened and hastened to withdraw the bulk of his troops from Greece.
And then there was just an anecdotal story that clearly illustrates the vices of human nature. At a meeting of the Greek military leaders, it was decided to determine among them by secret ballot the most valiant. As a result, the first award did not go to anyone, since most of the commanders submitted the first pebble … for their own loved ones. But it was impossible not to mention Themistocles, so everyone voted unanimously for the second award to him. However, only the Spartans appreciated the role of Themistocles in the victory over the Persians and gave him great honors.
And then everything was the same as in Shakespeare: "the Moor has done his job, the Moor can leave." When the threat from the outside ceased to worry the Athenians, they also remembered their wallet. And not the way they used to listen to the words of Themistocles.
And he was, first of all, a man, had his own shortcomings and somehow reproached fellow citizens:
"Are you really tired of receiving benefits from my hands!"
Obviously, he did not read Dumas's Three Musketeers, where it is very well written: "To reproach with a good deed is to offend."
As a result, he was so tired of the Athenians with reminders of his merits that he was ostracized and expelled from the city for as long as 10 years.
I never became great
The merits of this man were great. They are very large. But envy was also great for him.
And it is not at all surprising that when he was caught in correspondence with the Spartan king Pausanias, who went over to the side of the Persians, he was immediately, and in absentia, sentenced to death on charges of treason, which he did not commit. And Themistocles had to flee to the Persian king Artaxerxes I and prostrate before him, begging for forgiveness and protection.
Artaxerxes warmly received Themistocles, who fled from Athens, although before that he had promised for his head a huge amount of 200 talents (for comparison: all taxes of the Athenian maritime union were 460 talents per year).
And not only that: this amount, by his order, was handed over to Themistocles himself, since he … voluntarily "brought himself" to the king. I must say that Artexerxes was very much surprised - on the one hand, by the courage of Themistocles, and on the other, by the stupidity of his compatriots, and, seeing in front of him the hero of Salamis and the culprit of his father's defeat, he not only saved his life and rewarded him, but also gave him management of several coastal cities of Asia Minor - Magnesia-na-Meander, Lampsak, Miunt, and also Perkotu and Paleoskepsis. In exchange for this, he had to "only" lead the Persian troops to Greece.
And, when a few years later, Xerxes ordered him to fulfill his promise, Themistocles took poison, not wanting to harm his homeland. However, Plutarch wrote about this, and how everything was really there - no one knows for sure.
However, it was thanks to Themistocles that the Greeks were able to defeat the army of Xerxes, despite the numerical superiority of his army. It was he who created the Athens Maritime Union and turned Athens into the strongest state in Greece for many years.
The salvation of the country, its acquisition of previously unheard-of power - isn't this a reason to call a person Great?
But … the envy and stupidity of most of the Athenians, their intolerance towards people of a higher mind than their own, became the reason why Themistocles never became great for them …
